Limited-English students lag on test scores

AUSTIN — Texas students who struggle with the English language fell about 60 percentage points behind white students in passing reading and math tests by the time they reached the eighth grade, a study released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center says.

The lagging scores on achievement tests for a growing part of the state's public school enrollment highlights the state's need to do a better job of educating children with limited English proficiency, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said.

MALDEF is awaiting a ruling from U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice in a lawsuit alleging that the state is not adequately monitoring bilingual education programs.

"Texas has got to invest in our English-language learners for the sake of Texas' future and its economy," MALDEF lawyer Luis Figueroa said. "The better we can do to invest and reduce these achievement gaps, the better off Texas will be in the long run."

State Demographer Steve Murdock has warned that the average Texas household income will drop by more than $6,500 in about 30 years if educational achievement trends don't change. The average income decline would be greater if adjusted for inflation.

Nationally, about 46 percent of fourth-grade students in the "English language learner" category, sometimes called limited-English-proficient students, scored "below basic" in mathematics, the lowest level possible, according to the Pew report.

Nearly three quarters (73 percent) scored below basic in reading. The findings were based on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the "nation's report card."

It costs schools 40 percent more to educate children who are not proficient in English, Figueroa said, citing previous court testimony. Texas provides a 10 percent adjustment in its funding to school districts.

"We will continue to see these huge (achievement) gaps until they put some resources into bilingual education," Figueroa said.

But state leaders, he said, have been unwilling to increase funding for bilingual education "unless they took the money out from somewhere else" such as teacher pay raises, "so it's very difficult."

The state faces a problem, House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, acknowledged.

Eissler and others pushed legislation creating a pilot project for a dual language-immersion study. Students will spend half of the school day learning in their native language and half in English. The bill awaits Gov. Rick Perry's approval.